1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hydrocarbons including gas for use in cutting and/or welding torches, internal-combustion engine fuels and high temperature heating gas and oil fortified by the addition of a double additive or conditioner.
2. Prior Art
Various attempts have been made heretofore to improve gas used in cutting and/or welding torches by adding an additive or a double additive to them. These prior art gases have been composed of various hydrocarbons from methane to octane and some have included propane and butane. Harris U.S. pat. No. 1,565,935, issued Dec. 15, 1925, for example, fortified a wet casinghead gas composed of methane, ethane, propane, butane and hexane by the addition of ethyl ether or methyl ether. Another patent that proposed to add ethyl or butane and propane in U.S. Pat. No. 2,513,769, issued Jul. 4, 1950 (White).
British patent specification No. 813,981, published May 27, 1959 (Oxy-Ferrolene Limited) proposes to add to hydrocarbon gas an oxygen-containing compound such as isopropyl ether, methyl isopropyl ether, methyl propyl ether, normal propyl ether, ethanol and methanol.
British patent No. 813,981 suggests the incorporation of more than one compound but does not suggest any specific double compounds. Seley U.S. Pat. No. 2,411,759, issued Nov. 26, 1946, does suggest the use of double additives, namely, ethyl oxide and benzine.
The White U.S. Pat. No. 2,951,750, issued Sep. 6, 1960, refers to the prior double additives for torch gas of dimethyl ether and benzine at column 1, lines 21 to 25, presumably as disclosed in the Seley patent, and then proposes the use of the double additive of propylene oxide and dimethyl ether at column 1, lines 55 to 62, instead of using benzine and dimethyl ether.
In addition, Kessler U.S. Pat. No. 3,591,355, issued Jul. 6, 1971, proposed the addition of a double additive to torch gas, composed of a liquid alkanol such as methanol and a mixture of alkanes such as pentane and isopentane. White U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,479, issued Nov. 2, 1976, also proposed the addition of methanol and British patent specification No. 569,108, accepted May 4, 1945, proposed the addition of ammonia. This British patent also recommended increasing the amount of propane in producer gas, water gas, Mond gas and other commercially available gas mixtures in which methane predominated.
Medsker U.S. Pat. No. 2,908,599, issued Oct. 13, 1959, stated that methyl borate and acetone had been used previously in a fuel for torch use citing U.S. Pat. No. 2,281,910. The Medsker patent proposed a mixture of methyl borate and hexane as an additive for a gaseous fuel. The Bialosky et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,281,910, issued May 5, 1942, discloses a liquid flux containing methyl borate and a ketone, such as acetone or methyl ethyl ketone, to be subjected to a stream of acetylene, hydrogen or similar combustible gas for coating the work with boric acid or oxide.
The principal torch gas used heretofore has been acetylene which is comparatively expensive, difficult to store and to transport, requires the use of almost pure oxygen with it and forms persistently adherent scoria when used for cutting ferrous metal.
Internal-combustion engine fuels, such as gasoline, have been inclined to detonate in reciprocating piston internal-combustion engines, and it has been found that high-octane gasoline can reduce or eliminate detonation-causing combustion knock and increase power. Another expedient used to deter detonation has been the addition of antiknock material, particularly tetraethyl lead. Also, aromatic amines have been used in amounts averaging 2.6 g. of metal per gallon. Such amines are not commercially used, however, because of their higher cost than tetraethyl lead or mixed methyl ethyl lead alkyls. Also, methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl has been used. In addition, use of other metallic antiknock compounds have been proposed, such as thallium, selenium and tellurium organic compounds, but these have not proven to be useful.
A disadvantage of using tetraethyl lead is that the lead has been discharged into the air, and lead is physically harmful, so that its use in gasoline for internal-combustion engines has been phased out. Methyl tertiary butyl ether by itself has been used as an additive for unleaded gasoline as an octane booster and to reduce harmful emission products.
Also, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) has been used by itself heretofore as an additive for torch gas.